Tottenham have started a campaign where their fanbase have high hopes of success in rather underwhelming fashion, with Mauricio Pochettino’s men only picking up one point from their first two Premier League games.

Although the North Londoners can feel slightly unlucky from their showing at Old Trafford, giving up a two-goal lead at home against Stoke is unforgivable for a club with ambitions of a top-four finish.

One of the facets that changed that game at White Hart Lane was the second-half substitute of attacking talisman Harry Kane at 2-0, with Spurs lacking an offensive impetus after the removal of the England international.

Erik Lamela was introduced in the youth graduate’s place, with Nacer Chadli pushed further forward with little-to-no impact.

Tottenham’s over-reliance on Kane is due to the poor performances of his understudies, with Roberto Soldado being offloaded to Villarreal and Emmanuel Adebayor going off on a trademark strop.

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This means that Pochettino’s number one transfer priority ahead of the transfer window closing should be the addition of another centre forward that can play alongside Kane or provide quality cover for him.

Clinton Njie is an exciting acquisition but is more suited to playing on a flank more than through the middle, while Chadli, Lamela etc are not options that can be relied on to play out of position.

The situation is reminiscent of North London rivals Arsenal and their over-reliance on Olivier Giroud at this time last season.

The French forward has not fully convinced the Gunners faithful of his merits even now and 12 months ago the jury was out on the former Montpellier man to some degree.

However, Giroud was asked to play pretty much every game that Arsenal had due to Nicklas Bendtner and a host of unproven youngsters being the only other options for Arsene Wenger’s men.

Giroud has since proven that he has all the attributes to score goals relatively consistently in the English top flight, but fatigue was a key issue in halting his progress last term.

Come November last year, the Frenchman was visibly drained due to playing too many games and Arsenal suffered as a result.

Although it was not a direct reason that the Gunners did not win the Premier League title last term, the lack of striking options certainly played its part in Wenger’s men not ending the season in top spot.

For Tottenham and Pochettino, Arsenal and Giroud should serve as a real example.

The last thing that the White Hart Lane side want after Kane’s phenomenal 31-goal season last term, is to overplay the star and his form and confidence to drop as a result.

The fact that Tottenham are completely reliant on a player with such little experience is worrying and would add pressure to someone who should be enjoying his football.

Spurs need to look after Kane and without a valid back-up option they rise ostracising their most valuable asset.

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